I have a 2001 Honda Accord 4 cyl (with two car seats in the back). I drive the car VERY hard, including regular autocross events. My tires are shot, and I am looking at going from the stock 195/65/15 to 225/45-17. Based on what I have read and understand, the width of the wheel should closely match the width of the tire to keep it from rolling over. So, the 225 is about 8.9" wide. If I allow for about 1/2" of wheel thickness outside of each safety bead that tells me that I should ideally be looking for a 7.9" wide wheel, right?

Since there aren't many 17x8s to fit the Accord I gave up and was going to go with a 17x7.5. But when I went to talk to a guy at Discount Tires he told me that the 7" wide wheel is optimum for the 225 tire. Is that really true? That just seems really skinny for a 225 to me.

So what wisdom do you experts have to donate to me? Thanks in advance,
Joe Furedy